It always fascinates me to see product, service and marketing innovations emerge that bolster our ability to get the ‘bear hug’ we seek from consumers. Take Ms. Dewey for example. A search engine with a personality. Designed to interact, entertain and inform, Ms. Dewey 'humanizes' the search engine experience.
I think there's much more to Ms. Dewey than pages of links. I think she's a sign of things to come as we continue the pursuit of strong relationships with our customers. Let's look at the obvious: Now more than ever we connect with each other electronically. There is less face-to-face human interaction than that of a decade ago. For some, entire work days go by without an in-person experience. This has upped the value of human contact. The result? Consumers are responding more and more to the human connectivity strong brands transmit.
If you define a brand as the personification of a product, service or organization you see where I'm coming from. On some level we humans are always looking to make connections. When we make them we are moved in some way. In this case Ms. Dewey softens the pixels and for a second makes you believe you’re not alone at being alone. Where will Ms. Dewey pop up next? How about your ATM, a vending machine or a gasoline pump? She will be welcome at those cold, sharp places that separate you from your money and deny any sense of an attempt at human contact.
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Msdewey is absolutely appalling, what were Microsoft thinking? Google is so successful because you hit the first page and in 2 seconds you have the answer in front of you, no clutter, no gimmicks, just the answers. Msdewey is completely the opposite, apart from being a usability nightmare the 'Msdewey' character is irritating, patronizing and slow to respond. I very much doubt that pseudo personality or sex selling is or should be the way forward in IR. It looks more like an attempt by second rate marketing men desperate to produce a USP at any cost.
Posted by: Blair Robertson | November 28, 2006 at 11:16 AM
Blair, thanks for your thoughts. I can see your point. My salute is not to the sexual side of this concept, but the idea of softening customer experiences. I know there's a product or service out there where we would agree on this point.
Posted by: Derrick Daye | February 20, 2007 at 08:04 PM